ST. LOUIS -- The Cardinals understand that it’s a foundational year for everything the club’s brass wants to build for the long haul. The way a clubhouse reacts to a tough loss -- or a stretch of them -- can be noteworthy.
But like a weekend-long déjà vu, the Cardinals fell short in the late innings Sunday afternoon at Busch Stadium to drop their third straight close game to the Mariners, 3-2.
It was the Cardinals’ second one-run loss of the series after the team prevailed in its first five such contests of the season.
The Cardinals fell in frustrating fashion to the Mariners on Saturday, 11-9, despite executing a game plan against starter Bryan Woo that Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol still had on his mind nearly 24 hours later.
“I wish you guys had the opportunity to sit in the hitters meeting to hear what we were going to try to execute,” Marmol said Sunday morning. “Then you sit there and watch that game, and it was to a T. … Just the way it was all scripted. Rarely do you get the opportunities to line up the way they did.”
Of course, we don’t get to put an ear to the ground in those meeting rooms to hear how the sausage is made -- but Cardinals players have consistently spoken about the preparation that happens in them -- which breeds results on the field.
Yet, for all the things the Cardinals did well on Saturday, they still lost. Marmol’s resolve about how his club would react to that bitter reality had the manager energized about his group before Sunday’s game.
“It was a bad day to have a bad day from a pitching standpoint because of what you’re able to do against a really good arm on the other side,” Marmol said. “It hurts, but at the same time, if you poll our guys, they have an ‘I don’t give a [care]’ mentality. They’re going to come out and play today.”
Marmol’s edict was evident in the Cardinals’ return to the field at Busch Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Facing the threat of being swept on their home turf, the Cardinals stayed in the fight in another back-and-forth game against Seattle.
They got quality starting pitching and a pair of power swings from rookies JJ Wetherholt and Nathan Church, who each homered for the second straight day.
In the eyes of its manager, the club’s ability to separate another excruciating result from the quality of its approach to each day is imperative.
“I give that group a ton of credit,” Marmol said after Sunday’s loss. “Because you play a game like yesterday, and it’s a gut punch. You come back today and you can’t tell whether we won or lost. That’s just the reality.
“You look at that dugout, you look on the field -- guys are going about it with the style of play that we’ve talked about every single day. That’s what it’s going to take. Yes, tough series, to lose three. But what we did within the series, there were some real positives.”
One was Michael McGreevy delivering a strong performance on Sunday, striking out a season-high six batters over six innings of one-run ball. The timing of McGreevy’s gem was critical for the pitching staff after Saturday saw Marmol turn to seven relievers.
“We definitely needed it based on yesterday,” Marmol said. “[McGreevy] used everything and kept them off balance. For him to be able to give us some length today was necessary. So, a solid job by him, for sure.”
Time will tell whether this young Cardinals team, which sits a game above .500 at 14-13 after this weekend’s sweep, can be sharpened by these growing pains in a way that produces winning results.
Marmol’s conviction remains that these tightly contested losses won’t deter the team’s clubhouse -- specifically because of the way it's wired.
“I wish people could be in that hitters meeting I just came from,” Marmol said Sunday morning. “Because it's not this, ‘Man, yesterday was [tough].’ They didn’t give a damn. They're going to come out today and play with energy. They're going to take their shot. If they get beat, they're going to do the same thing the next day.
“If they don't get beat, they're going to shake hands, jump on a [plane], and go to the next place -- that’s just the reality of our group.”